ARCHIVED 12/7/09

CYBERSECURITY OVERHAUL RECOMMENDED BY INTERNET SECURITY ALLIANCE

Larry Clinton is the President of the Internet Security Alliance, which is calling on the government to offer incentives to businesses to fix security problems.

Clinton told FederalNewsRadio the incentives are needed because mandated procedures aren’t up to the task. The private sector, said Clinton needs “a more dynamic motivator of sustainable improvements in cybersecurity.”

Cyberspace policy under the Obama Admnistration, said Clinton relies on the private sector doing a better job with securing data.

This is an entirely different model of defense than we had in the Cold War or World War II or anything previously, where defense of the nation was entirely in the hands of the government. Now, for the government to carry out their responsibility to “provide for the common defense,” they need enlist the private sector.

Costs of attacks, said Clinton, aren’t transparent. The point of the attack may not be where the loss is. As an example, Clinton said that in order to wage a cyberattack on the Pentagon, the initial attack would be most effective if it were started at a much lower level – perhaps a subcontractor. Since that subcontractor never sees a financial loss, it might not make sense to the company to spend more for cybersecurity without some sort of incentive.